Buried utility marker assembly

ABSTRACT

A buried utility marker assembly for indicating the location of buried utilities at night includes a stake that is inserted into ground. The stake is aligned with a buried utility to indicate a location of the buried utility. Additionally, the stake is comprised of a florescent material such that the stake is visible at night. The stake is comprised of a light reflective material to reflect light thereby enhancing visibility of the stake at night.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

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STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

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THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

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INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM

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STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the Invention (2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98

The disclosure and prior art relates to marker devices and more particularly pertains to a new marker device for indicating the location of buried utilities at night.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a stake that is inserted into ground. The stake is aligned with a buried utility to indicate a location of the buried utility. Additionally, the stake is comprised of a florescent material such that the stake is visible at night. The stake is comprised of a light reflective material to reflect light thereby enhancing visibility of the stake at night.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a buried utility marker assembly according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a front view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a back view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a front perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a back perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 through 5 thereof, a new marker device embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral 10 will be described.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 5, the buried utility marker assembly 10 generally comprises a stake 12 that is inserted into ground 14. The stake 12 is aligned with a buried utility, such as a gas line, an electrical line and any other type of buried utility. Thus, the stake 12 indicates a location of the buried utility for construction workers, utility workers and any other workers performing excavation or underground work near the buried utility. The stake 12 is comprised of a florescent material such that the stake 12 is visible at night, in brush, poor weather conditions and any other low visibility condition. The fluorescent material may be a fluorescent material that absorbs and re-emits solar radiation. Additionally, the stake 12 is comprised of a light reflective material to reflect light thereby enhancing visibility of the stake 12 at night. The light reflective material may be any light reflective material that meets or exceeds Department of Transportation requirements for road and highway signage.

The stake 12 has a first end 16 and an outer surface 18, and the outer surface 18 has a first side 20 and a second side 22. The first end 16 tapers to a point to pierce the ground 14 and each of the first side 20 and the second side 22 has indicia 24 printed thereon. The indicia 24 comprise words 26 describing a warning relating to the buried utility. The warning may include the word “WARNING” extending downwardly along the stake 12. Additionally, the warning may include a verbal description of the buried utility, such as the words “water pipe line” or the like and the words “call before digging”. The warning may additionally include words describing a numerical representation of the depth of the buried utility. The indicia 24 comprise an image 28 corresponding to the buried utility, such as an image 28 of a telephone, an image 28 of a faucet and any other image 28 that correlates to the buried utility. The stake 12 is comprised of a synthetic polymer such that the stake 12 resists deteriorating from exposure to elements.

In use, a plurality of the stakes 12 is employed to mark the location of a buried utility. The first end 16 corresponding to each of the stakes 12 is inserted into the ground 14 above the buried utility. Moreover, the stakes 12 are spaced apart from each other and are distributed along a selected length of the buried utility. In this way the stakes 12 permanently indicate the location of the buried utility. Moreover, the fluorescent properties and the light reflecting properties of the stakes 12 facilitate the stakes 12 to be visible at night. In this way the stakes 12 facilitate emergency repair crews to avoid striking the buried utility when the emergency repair crews are responding to a power outage or the like at night. Additionally, the stakes 12 facilitate all workers to be aware of the location and the depth of the buried utility.

With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements. 

I claim:
 1. A buried utility marker assembly being comprised of a light reflective material wherein said assembly is configured to be visible at night, set assembly comprising: a stake being inserted into ground, said stake being aligned with a buried utility wherein said stake is configured to indicate a location of the buried utility, said stake being comprised of a florescent material wherein said stake is configured to be visible at night, said stake being comprised of a light reflective material wherein said stake is configured to reflects light thereby enhancing visibility of said stake at night.
 2. The assembly according to claim 1, wherein said stake has a first end and an outer surface, said outer surface having a first side and a second side, said first end tapering to a point to pierce the ground, each of said first side and said second side having indicia being printed thereon.
 3. The assembly according to claim 2, wherein said indicia comprise words describing a warning relating to the buried utility.
 4. The assembly according to claim 3, wherein said indicia comprise an image corresponding to the buried utility.
 5. The assembly according to claim 1, wherein said stake is comprised of a synthetic polymer such that said stake resists deteriorating from exposure to elements.
 6. A buried utility marker assembly being comprised of a light reflective material wherein said assembly is configured to be visible at night, set assembly comprising: a stake being inserted into ground, said stake being aligned with a buried utility wherein said stake is configured to indicate a location of the buried utility, said stake being comprised of a florescent material wherein said stake is configured to be visible at night, said stake being comprised of a light reflective material wherein said stake is configured to reflects light thereby enhancing visibility of said stake at night, said stake having a first end and an outer surface, said outer surface having a first side and a second side, said first end tapering to a point to pierce the ground, each of said first side and said second side having indicia being printed thereon, said indicia comprising words describing a warning relating to the buried utility, said indicia comprising an image corresponding to the buried utility, said stake being comprised of a synthetic polymer such that said stake resists deteriorating from exposure to elements. 